Unknown existence

"Okay children, for your next lesson I want you all to pair up with another student." a middle aged woman addressed a class full of children wearing school uniforms.

Soon then classroom was filled with chatter as students started approaching their friends to pair up. After most of the students had paired up, there stood two boys looking at each other.

"Poor Clark, he'll have to pair up with Mr Smartypants." someone from the group of students commented, followed by the others.

"M... ma'am, I am not feeling well today. Can I sit out for this lesson?" the boy nervously asked the teacher.

"*sigh* Ok, you may rest for this lesson. Rey as you also don't have a partner you too can also sit out for this lesson."

The teacher felt bad for Rey. She knew Rey was a bright student but his treatment from his peers was affecting his academics and behaviour. She wanted to help him but was powerless as the children came from influential families not someone she could offend with her status.

Dejected, Rey went to sit on the bench with his head bowed down, tears following down his cheeks. This has been a common occurrence since last year and he should have gotten accustomed to it by now, but you can't blame a child for that.

He sat down on the bench and looked at his classmates enjoying, laughing, quarrelling and some were even crying, while he was sitting all alone.

He wanted for someone to approach him even if it was out of pity or hatred, it didn't matter. He just wanted someone to speak to him regardless of the intention.

He looked around the ground when he felt a dark creepy feeling coming from his legs. He looked down to see his right leg was covered in pitch black darkness and it was spent making its way to the rest of his body. Instead of panicking, Rey just stared at it blankly.

The black thing soon enveloped his entire body except for his head and spread out, merging his surrounding with itself. Seeing his surrounding turning black, he absurd out of his trance and searched around him to find something or someone but as far as he could see, it was only darkness.

He tried to speak but the words didn't come out, frustrated he tried to move his legs but the feeling was long gone. Rey started to panic, his breathing was starting to get rough as the black thing started to slowly cover his face.

Utterly helpless, he could only watch as his whole body was engulfed by it.

...

"*huff* *huff*"

Rey woke up from his sleep, faint for breath as he sat up leaning against the cave's wall.

He barely calmed himself after a long time and looked out of the cave to see the midnight moon shining through the thick layer of clouds around it.

"*sigh* Why all of a sudden?"

Rey clutched his aching hear and stepped out of the cave to get some fresh air.

*whoosh*

A gentle breeze hit his face waking him up from his drowsiness. The pleasant wind coupled with the rustling of leaves and the barely visible moon gave an overall eerie feeling to the atmosphere.

"I think it should be safe to step out a little." remembering what Ed told him earlier, he decided to wander around the cave a little.

[Don't go too far, it's not safe.]

"I know that, just be quiet." though he had calmed himself down, he was still irritated by his dream and Sophie had to face the consequences.

[Here I am trying to be considerate and you are being a jerk. Fine have it your way, I won't say anything even if you are in danger.]

Sophie had good intentions but unfortunately she couldn't know about Rey's dream and took it as him being a jerk.

"That would be much appreciated."

Some distance away from him, the rookie was watching Rey.

"Where is this boy going?" the rookie had a tough choice to make. Whether to follow Rey and monitor and leave the group unguarded him or guard the group and let Rey want off.

Now in this situation, the logical think to do would have been to inform the leader or some other member and then follow Rey but perhaps it was his desire to be recognised by the leader, the rookie decided to follow Rey without informing anyone.

'I'll show the leader that I am not useless.'

At first Rey was careful and only went till from where he could see the cave but as time passed, he started to wander away from the cave, deeper into the forest.

"Hey, was this fog always here?" Rey was walking leisurely when he noticed that he was surrounded by a mysterious white fog.

"Soph, your know what this is?"

[...…]

"Ah, I forgot that you were acting as bitchy. Guess I'll see for myself." Rey taunted Sophie in hopes of getting a reaction out of her but was unsuccessful.

He extended his right hand to disperse the fog but contrary to his expectations, the white substance stuck to his hand and soon disappeared as if it had been absorbed by the body.

"Wh.... at?"

Meanwhile the rookie following him was trying so hard to stop himself from screaming.

'Don't touch that thing, you idiot! Nooo dammit!'

If he was not secretly following Rey, he would have ran to him and smacked him good for what he was trying to do.

Rey being Rey kept touching the white thingy not giving a damn about what it was.

_______________________________

You have been affected by Sigillaria Spores. Ah stats reduced by 20%.

Your body will feel lethargic the longer you stay in contact with them.

_______________________________

"Huh.... Sigillaria Spores?" Rey was shocked by the notification in front of him.

"Ah I remember now. It was something like, Sigillaria spores- get away as quickly as possible."

'That is right, get away from there.'

"But what if I don't go any further, it won't affect me that much. Hehe, what a genius I am?"

The one following him was starting to question the intel they were given about Rey being a genius.

'I'll talk to the leader about this.'

The one thing that Rey overlooked was that these spores were not dangerous only because of the debuff but also because they got people addicted. The front of swatting away the spores was like an addiction just like popping air bubble packaging.

What Rey was trying to do was not something unique and new and this method was bound to fail just like it has always failed before.

After swatting away all the spores surrounding him, Rey went in deeper into the forest where the concentration of these spores was much more. This was the intended effect of these spores, first to get the intruders hooked and then to lure them deeper all the while debuffing and impairing their decision making.

'F**K! This idiot is going on deeper, I'll have to report this to the leader.'

The rookie was smart in the fact that he decided to make a timely retreat but he overlooked the fact that he had been following Rey and had been in contact with the spores for as long as Rey was, although the debuff was not much, it nonetheless slowed him down.

Rey kept going further in till the point where he could barely even see his fingers.

Rey wandered aimlessly through the thick layer of spores when he tripped on something. He couldn't see what tripped him and had to bring his face up close to the object.

"What is this? A bone? Didn't Ed say there were no monsters?" he picked up the bone to inspect it and after not finding anything unusual, discarded it as it could have been from some monster which died before they even came here and continued moving forward.

As he kept moving, more and more bones became visible as the layer is spores thinned out.

"Who could kill all these monsters so mercilessly?" there were bones crushed into fine powder, some were sticking out of the body of the monsters and there were some bodies nailed to the trees with their own bones. And the deeper he went, the sight pleasing smell from earlier was replaced by a heavy, ominous smell of blood as the trees were brownish red from all the dried blood.

"What is this, some kind of slaughterhouse?"

Soon after he came to an area clear of the spores where he found a gigantic cave which was almost 4x the size of the cave they were staying in.

"Woaahh!"

The group following Ed and Rey was standing facing the spores.

"What you did earlier was foolish but you at least returned on time. For that you'll only have like a year's worth of salary cut."

"You can't do that leader, I'll go to the association."

*smack*

"Go back!" the rookie went back to his colleagues after getting his pay cut.

"We won't be going in any further because that's not our job, but one of you will have to stay here and observe what happens. The rest will go back."

Leaving one of the more experienced member behind, the group went back to their previous spot.

"What is the leader thinking? That boy is as good as dead now."

the man had been on the lookout for over an hour and with nothing to report was about to go back when he heard a faint sound coming from the distance.

The sound became louder and louder till it was painfully clear that someone was screaming on the top of their lungs.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!" the man saw a humanoid figure covered in a thick white layer running in his direction. Thankfully he was sitting up in the tree and the figure passed him as quickly as it came.

"*sigh* Time to report back to the leader." the man disappeared from his location without making a sound.

Rey was standing in front of the large cave deciding whether to go in or not.

"I think the answer is obvious."

Of course it is. Go ba-

"I am going in."

°°°°°

Wiping the spores off of his body, Rey slowly started to mover towards the cave.

Upon entering he noticed one thing, the floor was covered with various struggle marks along with some blood stains as if something or someone had been mercilessly dragged all the way.

After his finding, he kept moving with caution along the wall to get an idea of his position. The deeper he went the less struggle marks he encountered but the blood stains increased indicating that whatever it was probably must have died.

After going deep enough till the point he couldn't see the cave entrance any longer he felt a chill run down his spine.

He hesitantly looked up to find a pair of dark green eyes staying at him. He felt the pressure emanated by the creature to whom the eyes belonged to as fear gripped his body. He couldn't even breathe due to the sheer pressure. That's when he realised how curiosity killed the cat.

[Why are you standing still, dummy? Run!]

Sophie finally spoke up when she felt that survival was slim.

"Oh, forgive me! Cause I am a suicidal person who likes to put himself in danger. Of course I want to run, but my damn legs just won't listen!"

"Grrrr...." the creature let out a low growl which scared the shit out of him.

'I need to get out of here, quick' Rey tried to move his body but as soon as he took a step the creature let out another growl.

"Grrrr...." Rey stopped right in his tracks not daring to even blink.

The creature to a step towards him coming under the moonlight that was coming in through the cracks in the wall, just enough to illuminate its face for Rey to see.

Rey didn't remember the face of the creature of the clearly as he ran away when he saw the creature open his mouth, decorated by razor sharp teeth. He used Shadow Assimilation to first get out of its sight and then used Shadow Movements to get out of the cave. But even when he was assimilated with the shadow, he felt the continuous gaze of the creature on his back.

"Phew! That was terrifying. Atleast now I am safe." Rey was standing outside the cave trying to comprehend what just happened.

He wiped the sweat off his forehead and as if hearing his words, strong winds came out of the cave enough to make him lose his footing.

"Guess, I was too complacent. I won't be affected by such attacks anymore."

Rey was proud that he successfully escaped and was about to leave when he got this urge to turn back for no reason.

"What could be the worst thing that could happen?"

[Rey don't turn back now.]

"Come on, I just escaped from in front of that creature's face, I'm gonna be ok."

Rey turned around to find the same pair of dream green eyes staring at him.

"I'm out of here!" not giving a shit about what was about to happen, he ran with all he had not daring to turn back.

After reaching the cave, he went back to sleep and didn't even take his head out of his sleeping bag.

"Atleast tell me why we left in a hurry Rey?"

"All thanks to you." Rey shifted the blame on Ed so as to not tell him about what happened during the night.

"Me? How?"

"Thanks to you, we came this far and now that I am trying to reach Rosewood as quickly as possible, you are asking me why?"

"Tha.... why are you slowing down then? Chop chop Rey!" embarrassed, Ed walked past Rey.

On their way, they encountered a few monsters which Rey took care of, increasing his level by four whereas Ed could only level up twice.

Just when they were only a couple of hours away from Rosewood, they were surrounded by a group of people.

"Who are you guys?" Ed asked the masked people, getting into fighting stance.

"Us? Funny that you ask." a relatively young seeming man stepped forward and spoke up.

"Guys are we really doing this?"

"Sadly yes"

"Poor leader"

The rest of the members whispered amongst themselves.

" We are...."